Surgeon-in-Chief Invited to International Breast Cancer Groups

Release Date: 06/08/2016

Jennifer S. Gass, MD, surgeon-in-chief and co-director of the Breast Health Center at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, continues to be recognized as an international resource in the field of oncoplastic breast cancer surgery and cancer survivorship issues and was recently invited to participate in two key groups.

Dr. Gass completed a one-month sabbatical at the Paris Breast Center in 2011 in the novel surgical procedure that combines the best techniques from plastic surgery with oncologic surgery to remove breast cancer, and then brought oncoplastic surgery to Women & Infants, making it the first facility in New England to use it.

Dr. Gass – who has also served as a surveyor for the National Accreditation for Breast Centers, directs the breast fellowship at Women & Infants, and serves as a clinical associate professor at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University – was recently invited faculty to the Internationale Senologic Society in Warsaw, Poland. There, she presented on oncoplastic surgery and served on the Global Breast Health Initiative working group.

“As we gain a greater appreciation of the cancer survivorship journey, we better catalogue patient reported outcomes in survivorship. Oncoplastic surgery is one technique surgeons can provide that may empower women who want to preserve and reconstruct their breasts in the most natural looking way at the time the cancer is removed,” Dr. Gass says.

In addition, she was the invited co-chair of the American Society of Breast Surgeon’s survivorship pre-conference course at the group’s recent annual meeting. As such, she was asked to submit a manuscript for the course offering.

“Dr. Gass is an inspiring surgeon who is always searching to learn techniques or procedures that will best help her patients. A dedicated teacher, she is also eager to share that knowledge with others across the globe in the interest of helping women with breast cancer. We are fortunate to have her at Women & Infants,” says Maureen G. Phipps, MD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants, chair and Chace-Joukowsky Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, professor of epidemiology, and assistant dean for teaching and research in women’s health at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Women interested in making an appointment with Dr. Gass or other providers with the Breast Health Center at Women & Infants can call (401) 453-7520.

About Women & Infants Hospital

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the 9th largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,500 deliveries per year. A Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital, in 2009 Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s first mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.